


With the Darkness so Far Away

by Kittens



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Happy Ending, Running Away Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:07:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21578071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kittens/pseuds/Kittens
Summary: Arkanis is under siege by the Republic. Saoirse works in a kitchen. There's not much she can do, but she will do whatever she must to protect her son, Armitage. Even if it means trusting Maratelle Hux, a woman who must hate her.
Relationships: Armitage Hux's Mother/Maratelle Hux
Comments: 18
Kudos: 39
Collections: Star Wars Rare Pairs Exchange 2019





	With the Darkness so Far Away

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EffieAgo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EffieAgo/gifts).



The sounds of distant battle had faded to background noise. It was nearly constant and Saoirse hardly even noticed anymore. Every now and then, a particularly loud blast startled little Armitage, but she could hardly blame the child. He was only five and had no idea what was happening and Saoirse didn’t know how to explain it to him. She only hoped it would all be over soon and they could go back to their lives as normal.

Or maybe things might improve. If Brendol Hux was killed in an attack or captured by the Republic, that could only be a good thing. Saoirse had considered leaving and finding employment elsewhere, but Brendol would never let her take Armitage with her and she wasn’t going to abandon her son with that monster. Stars only knew what would happen to Armie with only Brendol as an influence.

Saoirse knew she wasn’t anyone the Republic would be interested in, which was a shame, as they might have helped her and Armie off world where Brendol wouldn’t be able to find them. If only she had something she could give them in return. But she didn’t have time to worry about that. Besides her job, she had to take care of Armitage, who was running over to her, terrified of what had sounded like a nearby explosion.

“Mommy!” Armitage cried. Saoirse immediately bent down, scooping her son up in her arms.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” she said gently. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

“I’m scared!”

“I know, but I’m here. I’ll keep you safe.” Even as she said those words, she wondered how true they were. There wasn’t much she could do against an orbital bombardment or a battalion of troops. But at least Armitage was young enough that a mother’s promise was good enough to calm him down.

“Saoirse.”

Hearing her name being called, she spun around to find Maratelle Hux behind her. She’d hardly interacted with Brendol’s wife, although it was plain that she hated her. Of course she did. Saoirse had slept with her husband, after all. 

“Sorry,” she said, knowing she would be in trouble for not working. “He’s scared. I had to calm him.”

“I know,” Maratelle said. “I… I know we don’t know each other, but I need you to trust me.”

Saoirse only stared, not sure what to make of that. Why wasn’t Maratelle angry at her? Why would she need to trust her?

“I need to take Armitage.”

“What? No!” Saoirse held him tighter against her. That was not at all what she would have expected Maratelle to say, but it would never happen. She wouldn’t let anyone else take him.

“It’s the only way to keep him safe. There’s a plan. The Imperials are sending someone to take Brendol and Armitage off planet and into the Unknown Regions. They’re going to leave the two of us here. If we die in the siege, then so be it. If you survive, you’ll never find your son again.”

“Why should I give him to you? I can take him now and run. Hide somewhere.”

“That’s to be expected,” Maratelle said. “There’s so few safe areas on the planet, they’ll find you eventually. But if they find you and Armitage isn’t with you? They just might give up. And they won’t be looking for me at all.”

“How do I know you won’t give Armie to them in order to get yourself off planet?”

“You don’t. You just have to trust that I hate Brendol as much as you do.”

Saoirse didn’t know Maratelle at all, but she couldn’t imagine that anyone would actually like Brendol. Who would want to stay with a man like that? There was another explosion, and Armitage flinched in her arms.

“We don’t have much time,” Maratelle said.

She hated to part from Armitage, especially since he was so scared, but if the Empire was trying to take Armitage from her, then splitting up was their best chance. Saoirse could think of many other scenarios where Maratelle would take Armitage and flee with Brendol, but she found herself handing Armitage over anyway. Deep down, she felt like she could trust the other woman.

“Mommy?” Armitage squirmed in Maratelle’s arms, trying to reach for Saoirse. 

“You’re okay,” she said, stroking his hair. “I need you to be a brave boy, Armie. You need to do whatever Maratelle says. Can you do that?” He nodded and Saoirse kissed his forehead, doing her best to stop the tears from falling.

“I’ll find you when this is over,” Maratelle said before she left.

Once she was gone, Saoirse couldn’t stop herself from crying, wondering if she’d made the right choice. If not, she might never see her son again. As it turned out, the tears worked in her favor. A man came in, shouting about finding Armitage and demanding to know where he was. Saoirse told him she didn’t know, and soon Brendol was in there, also shouting at her. But she had no idea where Armitage was..

Eventually, the man said they had to leave without Armitage. Brendol argued, briefly, and then left. Once they were gone, Saoirse realized there must have been some truth in Maratelle’s words. Someone had come for Armitage and he had been determined to find him. Maybe she had been right to trust Maratelle and she would soon be reunited with her son.

It was an hour after Brendol left - and about ten minutes after the last explosion rocked the house - that Maratelle showed up. Walking by her side and holding her hand was Armitage. When they laid eyes on each other, he let go of Maratelle and ran over to Saoirse, who dropped to her knees so she could hug him.

“Thank you,” Saoirse said, looking up at Maratelle. “You saved him.”

“It’s the least I could do,” she said. “Now, how about the three of us see about getting off planet?”

Saoirse didn’t move until Maratelle reached out and took her hand, pulling her along with her. She hadn’t thought that Maratelle really meant to include her and Armie in that, but clearly, that was exactly what Maratelle had planned. Her reasons were still a mystery, but there was no time to question it.

Maratelle took them to a speeder - damaged but it still worked. Barely. They had to crawl along at a slow pace to Scaparus Port. Brendol’s house wasn’t too far from the port and the Imperial Academy, but since the speeder started to smoke and make a loud clanging sound if Maratelle went too fast, it took them over twice as long as normal.

The slow speed worked out in their favor as they approached a Republic roadblock as they approached the port. Two soldiers stepped into the road in front of them, blasters ready but fortunately not aimed at them. Maratelle brought the speeder to a halt.

“Scaparus is under Republic control,” one of the soldiers said. “Please return to your home and we will let you know when the ports are open.”

“My name is Maratelle Hux. I’d like to speak to whoever is in charge of the occupation.”

“Hux?” The soldier clearly recognized the name and soon, they were being escorted past the roadblock and towards the main port building, which was overrun with Republic soldiers. They were searched for weapons and then taken inside.

“Mommy?” Armitage asked, squeezing Saoirse’s hand tightly as they walked into the building. “Where are we going?”

“I don’t know, sweetheart,” Saoirse said. She really wished she knew what to tell him, but the only thing she could do was to keep following Maratelle. It had paid off to trust her so far and Saoirse couldn’t imagine that Maratelle planned on hurting them, but she still couldn’t figure out why she would help them.

Soon they were met by an older woman in a uniform and she introduced herself as the colonel in charge of Scaparus. She already seemed to know who Maratelle was, but the colonel was the first to really pay attention to Saoirse and Armie.

“Who are they?” the colonel asked, looking them over.

“Armitage Hux and his mother,” Maratelle said.

“Brendol Hux’s son?” the colonel’s attention was focused on Armie and he hid behind Saoirse.

“Yes,” Maratelle confirmed, taking the colonel’s attention away from Armie. “We are prepared to help you in any way we can, but we want to be taken off Arkanis. Brendol might try to come back for Armitage. He’s not safe here.”

“And you? Is there a reason you need to leave?”

“I stole as much information as I could from Brendol,” Maratelle said, pulling a datachip from her pocket and holding it out towards the colonel. “I know you’d manage to break through his security eventually, but I thought I’d save you the trouble.”

The colonel reached out to take the datachip but Maratelle pulled it back. “You haven’t agreed to take us off planet,” she said. “All three of us.”

“We will put you on the first transport,” the colonel promised. “I imagine you have other information we might need, so the Republic will want to keep you close. We’ll arrange for a place for you to stay.” She glanced over at Saoirse. “We can’t do the same for you, unfortunately, but you should be safe enough off Arkanis.”

“No,” Maratelle said. “Saoirse and Armitage stay with me.”

“Oh.” The colonel paused, then nodded. She took out her datapad and touched a few things. “Well, it’s done. My people will escort you from here to Chandrila. You’ll need to stay there for the time being. At least until we’re sure we won’t need any more information from you.”

“That’s not a problem,” Maratelle assured her. “We just need to get off Arkanis.”

They were soon taken to a shuttle and fortunately given food, because Armitage was hungry. Because they were the only ones on the shuttle at the moment, which meant Saoirse could finally talk to Maratelle.

“Um, Mrs. Hux?” Saoirse wasn’t quite sure how to refer to her as she’d never interacted much with her before.

“Please, just call me Maratelle. I’m going to drop that name as soon as I can.”

“Not that I don’t appreciate you bringing us with you, but may I ask why?” It would have been easy to leave them behind and Saoirse couldn’t imagine any reason why she would want them around.

“I guess I just wanted to make sure you and Armitage were safe,” she said with a shrug. “After having to put up with Brendol, the two of you deserve something better.”

“You didn’t like him?” That much she could assume from her actions of protecting Armie and stealing information, but she’d thought that maybe it was because she was mad at being left behind. But it almost sounded like she didn’t like him at all.

“Of course not!” She laughed a little. “Brendol’s the worst. I was only married to him because it was convenient at the time. Ever since the Empire fell, I’ve been looking to get away from him.”

“We really are glad that you helped us out too,” Saoirse said with a smile. She’d wanted to get away from Brendol for years, but she didn’t have the means to escape with Armie. “We won’t intrude on your hospitality for long. As soon as I can, I’ll be out of your way.”

“Saoirse,” Maratelle said, reaching across the table and putting a hand on hers. “You don’t have to worry about that. If you want to leave, that’s obviously your choice, but I’d like to think we could be friends.”

Saoirse smiled again. She’d never really thought that having friends would be a possibility. None of the other kitchen staff had liked her much, calling her all kinds of names for having a child with their boss. Maratelle was the last person on Arkanis that Saoirse ever would have thought of as a potential friend, but she really liked the idea. But they weren’t going to be on Arkanis much longer.

***

Even after two months of living on Chandrila, Saoirse had trouble believing her life. She had just finished up at her job - sorting data for the Republic military - and was on her way to pick up Armie from school. It was a life she never could have imagined for herself. Her job wasn’t the most exciting, but she was happy to not be on her feet all day. And the best part was they worked around Armie’s school schedule so she was always available to pick him up.

Once she’d picked Armitage up, they walked back to their apartment. Along the way, Armie told her all about his day at school and even about some of the other kids that he wasn’t quite friends with. Saoirse hoped that would soon change, but she couldn’t blame him for not being the best at making friends. Armie had never been around other kids before.

The rest of the day went as usual - she spent time with Armie, made dinner, and put Armie to bed. Once he was asleep, she normally watched the news or read or sometimes, just spent hours talking to Maratelle. At first, they’d spent a lot of time bonding over their mutual hatred of Brendol, but then, they drifted into other topics. Sometimes, they didn’t even really talk about anything at all and would just sit near each other, glad they weren’t alone.

“Can we talk?” Maratelle asked, sounding very serious. She never asked to talk - they just did. 

Saoirse nodded. She didn’t realize that she’d been dreading the day that Maratelle would get sick of her and demand that she move out of the apartment. Saoirse knew that she should be grateful that she’d let her stay at all, but she hadn’t thought about where she and Armitage would go. Maratelle sat down on the couch next to her, and then she reached out and put a hand on hers.

That was unexpected.

“Saoirse, I’ve been wanting to say something for a while and I haven’t quite figured out how.”

“I’ll pack my things,” Saoirse muttered. She didn’t need Maratelle to say it. If she wanted her gone, she’d leave. “We’ll be gone tomorrow.”

“Gone? No, Saoirse, that’s not what this is at all!”

“Then what -”

Before she could finish that question, Maratelle closed the distance between them and pressed their lips together. There were so many thoughts going through Saoirse’s head that she didn’t quite know what to do. She wasn’t being kicked out, she and Armie still had a place to live, Maratelle liked her, Maratelle was kissing her, and Saoirse really, really liked it.

“Sorry,” Maratelle said, pulling back. She looked a little embarrassed. “Like I said, I hadn’t figured out how to say it. But… what do you think?”

Saoirse wanted to ask a ton of questions. Why had she done that? How long had she wanted to do that? Was she wanting to be in a relationship with her? Did she just want sex? But she didn’t ask any of them. Instead, she said, “I think I’d like you to do that again.”

She did.

***

It was three years since they left Arkanis with the Republic, and Saoirse couldn’t be happier. That was the start of her and Maratelle’s lives together, and for that reason, they had chosen that date as their wedding date.

Saoirse couldn’t believe that she was getting married - even as she stood in front of all their friends. Another shock - she had friends. That wasn’t what she’d expected from the Republic, but she was happy to have friends. And of course, she had the best friend of all. Her soon-to-be wife.

She and Maratelle were all smiles as they said their vows and placed rings on each others’ fingers. They kissed to the loud cheers of their friends and Saoirse couldn’t help but cry a little as they parted. Maratelle kissed her again.

“Mom?” Armitage said, taking her hand as they started to walk down aisle, together. A family. “Why are you crying?”

“Because I’m so happy, Armie!” She squeezed his hand, glad her boy was still with her, safe. And now he had another parent who would always look out for him. Who had kept him safe when she hadn’t even known him.

“I love you,” Maratelle said as they got into the speeder that was waiting for them. It would take them to their reception at a hotel, where they would celebrate and then, Armie would go spend the night at a friend’s place, leaving Saoirse and Maratelle to spend their wedding night in the hotel, only caring about each other.

“I love you too,” Saoirse said, giving her wife a quick peck on the lips. They would have time for so much more later.

It was one of the best nights of Saoirse’s life and she knew that there would be many more to come.


End file.
